Not Exactly Fun in the Sun
by percabethrules
Summary: Annabeth has been invited to go on holiday with Percy and his family. But being half bloods, summer can never be normal and this holiday is no picnic in the park! Read to find out what happens!
1. THE EMAIL

**1- The email**

Summer was looking to be a gloomy prospect for me this year. Camp was overflowing with newcomers and old-timers who had other places to stay were encouraged to stay at home this year until all the cabins had been sorted out. Chiron would have appreciated help from campers who knew what they were doing but there was absolutely no room.

I dreaded the thought of having to spend the whole summer in San Francisco with my dad and step-mom. Even though we got on almost perfectly now, Dad always had new projects to work on (why is that battles which took place so many years ago need so much analysing and daughters alive now only get an occasional phone call?) and my step-mom, Anisa, was too caught up with the terror twins. I found myself wishing for a miracle. You never know what can happen if you wish hard enough…and if you have an amazing boyfriend with great parents.

Ω

I entered my room at St Margaret's Academy for Young Girls (more like young Barbie dolls too hard to control). The door is stiff and old and it takes a huge push for it to open and, after a hard day's work, it's the most annoying thing in the world. Apart from the fact the numbers on it were fixed on properly, everything was wrong with it.

The room is too small for me and my roommate, Shelley, to share. We'd tried our best to hide the pea-green (puke) coloured walls with pictures and posters and covered the damp patches on the brown carpets with colourful beanbags. But still the ancient ugliness stood out like a sore thumb.

"Ugh, this room makes me want to puke so bad!" Shelley groaned as she came in behind me.

I nodded in agreement and rolled my eyes at the crack in the ceiling's plaster which was impossible to hide since it was too high up.

"Someday," Shelley sighed, plopping down onto an orange beanbag and gazing up at a poster of the _Twilight_ stars, "I'm going to be as famous as those guys. And then, I can afford to live in places way classier than this hell hole."

I couldn't help but like Shelley despite her big ambitions and a strange love for things fluffy and pink. She had a likeability around her; she was always laughing and smiling in class but I heard her cry at night because then was the only time she could admit she missed her family. Her grandmother was her only family, really, since both her parents were killed in a car crash when she was six and her uncle hardly counts since he lives in Tokyo and send one postcard a year for Thanksgiving. Her goal was to become an actress and get discovered by some hunky director who would sweep her off her feet and tell her he loved her twenty times a day unlike the "losers" she'd dated in the past. I also couldn't help but feel sorry for her; having her heart broken so many times by her parents, lame guys and loneliness must have been hard.

I sat down on my own turned on my iMac, a present from Dad and Anisa for my birthday. The screen slowly came to life and my wallpaper loaded: a picture of me and Percy from the last summer at camp in a canoe; we're both laughing at the stupid joke Grover told us to get us to loosen up for the camera. I turned to make sure Shelley wasn't looking because I almost felt guilty for having a great boyfriend.

The blinking icon on the screen told me I had one new message in my inbox so I loaded up my email account. No doubts about who it was from: only Percy was un-busy enough to ever send emails. I opened the email, labelled _URGENT!!!,_ and read the text on the page:

_Hey Annabeth! Enjoying the last day of school?? Just wanted to ask if you had any plans for this weekend cuz we're heading down to Montauk for two nights and I wondered if you wanted to come along. Well…I hope you can. Love from Percy. _

I was so happy at the thought of actually having something to do this summer, and _with Percy_, that I actually sighed way too happily.

"What's up?" Shelley asked. She'd crept up behind me and even though I closed the window, I was too slow; she'd read the whole thing.

I waited for her to hide the fact she wished she was me and lie about how great she thought this was. But she didn't. Instead she gave me a long, jealous look and said: "That's how it starts, you know. He invites you to stay the night, lies that his parents are going to be there and takes you totally by surprise. And you think you're enjoying it but really you didn't that to happen so fast and two day later he says he's sorry and within ten minutes he's holding hands with the girl from the cheerleading squad." She blinked back tears, ruining my happiness and even though I felt sorry for her, I hated her for that just that minute.

"Percy's not like that, Shell." I said quietly.

"I know." she replies with the tears running down her face, "Your boyfriend's not like that. I'm sorry I said it. I guess I wish I was you sometimes, Annabeth. Your love life is pretty much perfect, right? You don't know how lucky you are."

"Yes I do." I told her, "I know just how lucky I am. Sorry, Shelley."

Shelley blinked and shook her head. "No! Don't be sorry – I'm the one who should be apologising for ruining your happy moment!" Then she grabbed me and pulled me out of my chair, "No time to sit around, you lazy girl! Time to get packing – we have a boy to dazzle!"

I laughed and hugged her. She was right - we did have a boy to dazzle. And not just any boy; Percy Jackson's really something special.


	2. Plans

**Plans**

Even though I went crazy when I was assigned the job of "official Olympian architect", I had never seen so much paper until I walked in on Ms Jackson planning the holiday.

"No, no, no!" she was screaming into the phone while gesturing me to sit down and making tea all at the same time, "Rebecca, you don't fool me. I know you've got cabins left so don't deny it. I need a cabin for tomorrow night – it is absolutely essential!"

I sidestepped a pile of paper on the floor, sticky-labelled _places to eat_, ad spotted Percy sat cross-legged shifting through more papers. He hadn't noticed me come in and was rifling through the papers as if his life depended on it; considering Ms Jackson's mood, it probably did.

"What's up, Seaweed Brain?" I asked casually, leaning against the wall.

"Annabeth!" Percy exclaimed and his face broke into a huge smile which made my heart skip a beat. It's sp stupid, the effect he has on me, even after all this time. It's nearly a year that we've been dating. "I am so glad you could make it next weekend!"

He put his hands around my waist and kissed me. I had to wrap my arms around his neck to stop myself falling over because my knees had suddenly turned to jell-O. My heart skipped several beats and I wouldn't have minded if the world ended right then.

"OK, you two, enough of the puppy love!" joked Mr Blofis as he walked into the room.

"Hey, Mr Blofis." I said letting go of Percy's neck but holding onto his hand.

"Sorry about the mess, Annabeth. Sally was so excited you were coming with us, she's gone a bit frantic." Mr Blofis said as he poured some coffee for everyone.

"Yeah," Percy said rolling his eyes, "She's been in holiday-planner mode since you replied to my email yesterday. So far she's broken two mugs and thrown the phone at the wall five times. I'm seriously thinking about getting a helmet."

I laughed and realised I hadn't done so in ages. Being in this house always made me feel good. It was nice to be around people who felt like a proper family. Percy even called Mr Blofis 'dad' now and the three of them got along really great. I remember Percy telling me how Mr Blofis was 'dad' to him: easy going and fun, whereas Poseidon was 'father': formal but family. I wished could be a part of a family like this.

Ms Jackson sighed dramatically and hung up the phone. "It's such a miracle how an empty cabin just suddenly appears when you mention that you know the boss." she said smiling. Then she turned to me and said: "Annabeth, darling it's so fantastic you could come!" she hugged me and I knew that if she had carried on or a minute longer, I would definitely have suffocated.

"So, is everything sorted?" I asked pulling away.

"Yes!" she cried triumphantly and pulled out a map from under a giant pile of papers. I wondered how she knew it was there. "Okay, so we start hew and get a Greyhound to here," she began pointing to a silver star then to a red dot, "Then we get a train from the red dot to either one of these yellow dots and a bus from either of those will take us to this green dot which a five minute walk to the cabins which is the gold star."

I nodded and pretended to have followed all that. Percy saw through my confused expression and grinned; he loved it when I was confused or wrong.

"I can't believe it," I thought to myself, "I'm going on the most perfect holiday ever!"

Boy was I wrong; there's no such thing as peace when you're a half-blood.


	3. On the road

**On the road**

I sat in class and counted the seconds till the end of the semester. Just a few more seconds till summer freedom and a weekend with Percy! I glanced at my roommate Shelley and saw she was staring at the clock as if by doing so, time will go quicker. I highly doubted that anyone was actually paying attention to what the History teacher was saying about the Romans and Kay, renowned for her head full of air, was sitting with her calculator out, waiting for a math question.

_Three…two…one…!_

Thirty chairs were scraped back and, before the poor teacher could even finish her sentence, thirty girls rushed out of the classroom, already tugging at their ties and shedding the blazers, rejoicing at the beginning of the summer vacation.

I almost ran to my room to pick up my suitcase. When I got there, I opened the door in record time and rushed to make sure I had packed everything. Shelley rushed in after me, squealing.

"Gosh, Annabeth, you must be so excited!" she said jumping up and down, "Your first weekend away is always the best. I am so happy for you, you can't even imagine!"

"I think I can, Shell!" I laughed, "Jumping seriously showed me how happy you are!"

I worked hard to keep the excitement out of my voice, trying to appear calm and cool, but the truth was that I couldn't wait to get out that door. After quickly hugging Shelley goodbye, I rushed out of the door, pulling my suitcase after me.

After an endless maze of corridors, I finally emerged into summer sunshine. I scanned the car park for Mr Blofis's new car (the other was seriously trashed when an overweight flying horse landed on it last summer). It was hard to spot among the cars of students and parents who'd come to pick up their daughters. But then I caught sight of Percy, leaning against the car, scanning the car park for me. My heart did a flip in my chest like every time I see him.

"Who's that _guy_?" a girl said from behind me as if guys were special treats like caviar is to a homeless man.

"I don't know…never seen him before but he's hot." her friend replied.

I decided to walk away, towards Percy, before my head got even bigger and burst with pride – my fatal flaw. As I stepped onto the gravel, I nearly got run over by a red sports car so I guess I understand how it could probably kill me. I waved to catch his eye and he spotted me, waving back.

"Hey!" he greeted me and pulled me into a hug.

"Hey." I smiled into his shoulder.

After shoving my suitcase into the trunk, we climbed into the backseats, crawling over a giant picnic hamper from which aromas of home-baked cookies and muffins were emanating. I followed my instructions to buckle-up and we were on our way, Ms Jackson concentrating on reciting our plans for the weekend from a list, Mr Blofis concentrating on not running over squealing freshmen and Percy concentrating on me.

"So, Seaweed Brain, are you glad that school's over?" I asked, trying to sound casual but ending up sounding like an idiot (who wouldn't be glad that school was over?).

"Yeah…" he answered as if he was really having to think about the answer, "But I bet you're depressed that there's no math lectures for a blissful one-hundred and four days."

"Oh," I laughed, pretending to be really disappointed, "how can I survive without Mrs Newton ranting about how great Pythagoras was and spitting on my desk?"

"No way," Percy said shaking his head and biting into a blueberry muffin, "Mr Cordell is much worse. 'Mr Jaaaackson, could you pleeease tell the claaaass the square root of piiii?' Gods, if we were ever going to need to know that, we'd be born with the knowledge like knowing how to breathe."

"Okay," I said admitting defeat, "Maybe your math teacher's worse than mine but Miss Theresa wanted to be a nun and got forced into marriage and that is always the focus of our English classes."

We carried on like that for a long time, arguing about who had the worst teachers, not really caring that Mr Blofis was threatening to blow up the car up ahead if it didn't get a move on (impossible because of the heavy traffic) or the fact that Ms Jackson was snoring like a chainsaw. I was on the road to a weekend of utter bliss….I hoped.


	4. The secret beach

The secret beach

"Here we are!" Ms Jackson announced, as if the huge sign which said _Welcome to Montauk Beach Cabins _did not make it obvious. "Troops forward march this way to Cabin Sofia."

"Why name a cabin?" Percy groaned as he struggled with Ms Jackson's second giant picnic hamper ("One is for baked stuff and the other for extras.") and his suitcase.

"I don't know." I panted. It seemed the car park was miles away from the actual ring of cabins. You try carrying a giant hamper full of cookies and muffins in scorching summer heat; it's not easy.

Montauk Beach Cabins advertised their cabins as "the finest". I thought it was an exaggeration when Ms Jackson forced me to read the brochure but now I could see that the cabins really were first class. They were all lined up in a long row each facing the beach and sea on one side. The backyards were all neatly trimmed and each had its own pool and a small patio with colourful deck chairs and a barbecue. The cabins themselves were more like small bungalows; the walls were painted pastel yet strangely bright colours and many had climber roses creeping up the sides. It looked something straight from "Disney's Guide to How the World Should Look".

"Whoa, mom!" Percy exclaimed, "When you said we were going all out this time, you really meant it."

"This time?" I asked puzzled, "Don't you guys usually come here?"

"No," Percy laughed, "Mom was all 'Paul and Annabeth will be with us this time; we should celebrate!' Usually we stay in some run-downy place further down the promenade where 'nice' means an air conditioner which works for more than five minutes without breaking down."

Ms Jackson laughed and said "Oh you remember last time, Percy, when we turned it on and it started smoking?"

We finally reached Cabin Sofia, a largish cabin with pale blue walls and a white picket fence around it. Mr Blofis opened the door and we stepped inside. The main hallway was long with three doors leading off it to other rooms and one right at the end for the bathroom. The only furniture in it was a state-of-the-art white oak table above which hung a frameless mirror.

"Oh, look, they left us a note!" Ms Jackson said and picked up a square of fancy paper, "It says: 'Welcome to Cabin Sofia. We hope you enjoy your stay.' Isn't that nice!"

"Mom, I have feeling they give everyone one of those." Percy said.

He headed off into one the bedrooms and immediately yelled for his mother. There was apparently some problem.

"What is it, Percy?"

"Mom, this room only has one bed and it's pretty small." he complained, "Plus all the stuff is pink."

"Yes, well," Ms Jackson said sounding uncomfortable, "You have book these cabins months in advance and since we booked pretty last minute, we got the last cabin which is meant for three people and I thought you'd be man enough to take the couch…."

If looks could kill, Ms Jackson would have been in her grave by now. But, without saying anything, Percy dragged his suitcase into the living room. I followed and was overcome with shock at the room. There were fancy white leather sofas and a recliner with a huge flat-screen TV which Mr Blofis turned on at once. On the sky blue walls, there were photographs of the beach at different points of the day: sunrise, midday, sunset, rain and another of boats along the pier. I'd never been in a place so swanky and something about it told me I just had to take my shoes off. As soon as I did, my toes sunk into the soft, white carpet.

"Wow!" I said, sinking down next to Percy on the biggest sofa.

"I know," he grinned, "This place is awesome!"

Ms Jackson, however, was not going to let us lounge about all day. It was already one o' clock and she had drawn up a schedule of what we were doing today.

"Right, we have one hour to freshen up; take showers, change clothes, etc. Then we are out of here and heading down to Mario's Ristorante for _Italiano_. Then we head down to the beach to relax." she said in such a commanding way, we all obeyed her rules.

Within an hour, we were all ready, showered, with our beach bags packed and clothes changed. Percy's hair was still wet from when Ms Jackson had basically dragged him out of the shower. After making sure we were all on time and had packed all the essentials, Ms Jackson paraded us out of the cabin and out onto the sunshine.

Mario's Ristorante was small but tastefully decorated. The Italian waiter took our orders and brought us our food which we downed in double time before making a beeline for the beach. I pushed my sunglasses up my nose and felt Percy's fingers link through my mine. I looked at him and he smiled, his eyes crinkling adorably.

"We are going for a swim." he said quietly.

"Okay." I was way too weak even to say no or play hard to get. Something about him made me want to give in to anything he said because the things he said were wonderful.

Once we had set up (umbrella up, beach mats spread out, iPod playing slow David Guetta tracks – Ms Jackson's choice – and beach bags put down out of sight of thieves) Ms Jackson dozed off while sunbathing and Percy told Mr Blofis we were heading out to the water. I doubt that he even heard, he was so engrossed in some book about a runaway bride (are men supposed to read books like that?).

Percy half dragged me down further and further away form where we had set up.

"Where are we going?" I asked, unable to keep the excitement out of my voice.

"You remember I said that we used to stay at the cabins further down the promenade?" he said sounding pretty excited himself. "There's a small sort of cave down there between some of the huge rocks. It leads like a tunnel down to a really cool smaller beach. I don't know if I'll be able to find it – I've only been down there once - but I really want you to see it."

I didn't even care that he was probably going to pull my arm right off because all I could think is: _he wants to take me somewhere special!_ I told myself not to be silly and to keep my head out of the clouds but another part of me told myself to relax and let go of my up-tightness (just because I won't admit I'm uptight, doesn't mean I'm not aware of it).

I noticed that the beach was getting dirtier and the buildings were getting shabbier. Soon we came to a part of the beach which was slightly dark because of a giant billboard advertising sneakers blocking almost all the sunlight.

"There it is!" Percy cried.

Between two giant rocks was a tiny crack, big enough for a skinny ten-year-old boy to squeeze through. "Percy, are you sure that we'll fit through that crack? I mean it's pretty small." I said.

"Yeah. Remember two summers ago when Quintus had us playing tag with scorpions and we found the opening to the Labyrinth and you said it was too small but we fit through?" he answered and continued walking towards the crack.

He stared at it and then stuck his shoulder through the crack; it fit easily. After a bit of shoving, he managed to wriggle through. I copied, going in facing sideways to try and fit better. The rough surface grazed against my wrists and knuckles and I had to breathe in to finally squeeze through.

I emerged on the other side on a sort of wide ledge, a foot or so above the ground. Percy was waiting on the sand below. I had to catch my breath, the view was so beautiful. The sand was much whiter and there wasn't a person or bits of trash in sight. The sea was rough, though, so I didn't see how we could swim. After taking it all in, I jumped off the ledge.

"Pretty place, huh?" Percy asked, grinning at my expression.

"I'll say!" I said, "But we won't be able to go swimming, you know. The sea is rough and it could get dangerous."

"Annabeth, you're with the son of the god of the sea." he said, "There's no way we're drowning."

He took my hand again and started leading me towards the water, ignoring my complaints about how cold it would and the fact we weren't in swimsuits. I stepped into the water, almost pulling away at the cold. But suddenly, the water was warm and the surface started to bubble. I looked at Percy but he was concentrating on whatever he was doing to the water. Suddenly the water around us shot up but our clothes remained strangely dry. The jets of water formed an arc over out heads until we were completely surrounded; it was like being in one of those giant human-hamster balls.

"Wow," I said, "Another magic bubble." The bubble started to sink slowly into the water.

"You know it doesn't get more romantic than this. Not for me, anyway." Percy joked, and I had to laugh.

We leant against one of the sides of the bubble and it travelled deeper into the sea. I couldn't speak, not even to tell Percy how amazing this was. He squeezed my hand as if to say he understood.

There were all kind of fish around us of all different colours. They were so close; I felt I could touch them. A happy looking dolphin came right up to the bubble, nudging it slightly as it was a new toy, and we were jolted around inside.

"Turbulence." Percy muttered.

We must have been down there for ages, because when we came up, the sky was dimming. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and the little light started to flash. I picked up and saw there was a message from Ms Jackson.

_Where are you? I'm getting worried._

Before I knew what was happening, the bubble popped and my feet were on dry sand once again. Suddenly Percy snatched my phone from my hand and started to reply.

"Percy, give me back my phone!" I yelled.

"Relax," he said and snapped the phone shut, "I told her not to worry if we don't go back tonight."

"Why would we not go back tonight?" I asked, trying to control the fluttering feeling in my stomach.

"Because if we went back, we wouldn't have any time together." he answered and I could see his blush in the dimming light. "Mom would try to feed you her special blue foods till you wanted to hurl and Paul would just ask you questions about school because he doesn't realise that you want there to be a difference between class and dinner."

"So Percy Jackson wants to be alone…" I grinned, leaning forwards.

"Yes he does, so he can do this…"

Our lips met. His lips were soft and I felt as if I could melt right into his arms. I could've stayed that way all night, because I loved the bubbly feeling which started at my toes and fluttered in the pit of my stomach. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. All I could think was _He's mine! Percy's my boyfriend! _I could feel his breath on my face and his arms around my waist. All too soon, he pulled away.

"Sorry," he said, "I just had to breathe."  
I laughed and shook my head, "That is _so_ romantic."

We walked further away form the water and climbed back onto the ledge so when the tide turned, we would be spared. We lay on the cool stone surface, his arm around mine, and stared up at the sky. The stars twinkled like little diamonds in the blue-black sky.

"There's the dog star…" he whispered, pointing to a constellation, "And that's Hercules. And there's Zoë's star."

We stayed like that for a while, pointing out different constellations and making up our own: the Strawberry, the Blob, the Squashed Frog….Till my eyes finally drifted closed and I felt my head rest against Percy's shoulder. After a while, I heard him breathing heavily and knew he was asleep too.

So far so great. I snuggled closer as the wind grew chillier and the sea started churning like crazy. I heard a distant rumble coming from somewhere deep inside the earth. If I was mortal, I'd think it was just thunder but being a demigod, I knew something was wrong. But at the time, I was too blessed put to worry. If only I had known what was lying in store for me just the next day.


	5. The Punks

The Punks

When I woke up the next morning, my first thought was: _gods, it's still so early._ And I genuinely thought it was. The sky was still dark, the sun blocked from view by huge clouds and not a bird to be seen. The chill from last night was replaced though; a heavy, humid heat hung like a blanket over the whole beach and it made my clothes stick to me.

"Percy, wake up." I said, nudging him with my foot. "We need to get back; I feel disgusting, I need to take a shower and brush my teeth."

"Gods," he grumbled as he sat up, "Are you always this cranky in the morning? Because if you are, I'm so never sleeping in the same room as you ever again."

I stuck out tongue and redid my ponytail. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Percy staring at the sky. He could tell something was wrong too.

"Something's about to happen." he said quietly. "And I don't mean the fact I'm going to bust my bladder if I don't get to the bathroom on time."

He clambered up some rocks and carefully shoved himself though the crack to get back to the other side. I followed, this time knowing what to expect. But when we got back to the other side, the beach was crowded with people. I did not expect so many people to be out at six in the morning.

"Percy, what's the time?" I asked.

"Noon." he said checking his watch, as if he regularly slept till noon.

"Noon?" I repeated in disbelief, "How could we have slept for fourteen hours?"

"I dunno." he shrugged, "But it doesn't matter because it's not like we're late for class or anything: it's summer vacation!"

We walked back to the cabin in silence after that, both to groggy still to talk. When we got back, we found a note taped to the door. I found the spare key under the biggest rock by the steps and unlocked the door, while Percy squinted at the note before following me inside. We sat at the kitchen table and began to decipher the note. After ten minutes, we managed to read:

_**If you two ever decide to come back (Paul thinks you might not because you could have run away to Las Vegas to get 'hitched'), then there is muffins in the breadbin and juice in the fridge. Please clean up after yourselves, because I know Percy won't unless I tell him to. You can do whatever but be back by six so we can have some family bonding time and I'll make fried chicken. **__**Percy, remember to change your underwear.**_

_**Love from, Mom…and Paul too apparently.**_

_**P.S. Annabeth, I recommend you change your underwear too. xox**_

Both too embarrassed to actually discuss the note, Percy rushed into the toilet and I set the table (well I ate a muffin over the sink, drunk a glass of orange juice at the table and ate a giant, blue cookie). Then, I heard the shower running which meant Percy had decided to hog the bathroom, so I turned on the TV, finally settling for a documentary on Frank Lloyd Wright (one of my most favourite architects and main mortal inspiration).

Percy came out of the shower after a while, with his hair all tousled and damp. I had to bite my lip to stop me from actually saying out loud how cute he looked. I grabbed a T-shirt and my denim shorts (and clean underwear, as recommended by Ms Jackson) and disappeared into the bathroom. I took a quick shower and came out to find Percy watching some old-time footballer talk about his greatest touchdown.

"I was thinking we should head down to the centre, where all the stores are." I said, "I want to get something for my roommate, Shelley; she's really awesome."

"Okay; we could go now." he replied, turning off the huge flat-screen. As he got up, the remote slipped on the smooth leather and disappeared between two cushions.

I pulled on my Converse even though it was too hot for them – I don't do sandals because there's something so disturbing about people being able to see your feet. I took a hat from my bag, but not the Yankees one, and something about the strange eeriness of the day made me slip my dagger into the pocket of my shorts.

Percy was waiting on the porch, staring at the sky. I wondered if he had Riptide with him, then remembered it was always in his pocket, whether he wanted it or not. We walked out of the gate, hand in hand, talking about things like how annoying snobby cheerleaders were and debating whether Percy actually liked Taylor Swift and pretended not to in front of people (I was wining since I knew he did, but he put up a feeble protest on how she was lame). We both avoided the subject of potential danger right around the corner because there was too high a chance that we were wrong, and I was not willing to risk my pride for that.

The centre of town was busy with people: residents bargaining with retailers and getting the best deals; tourists, some on their own, some in couples holding hands and laughing, others dragging bored or overexcited kids away from the souvenir shops with brightly coloured toys; stall owners who called out their 'great' deals on fish caught that morning and jewellery they'd made themselves, all blending in to create a scene exactly like the ones you read about in books set by the sea.

We looked around for a while, stopping at stalls of beads and others which sold T-shirts, stepping into tacky tourist stores where I thought about buying an _I __ Montauk _fridge magnet for Shelley, and even going into expensive designer boutiques (the designers so exclusive, they were unknown) to try on stuff we wouldn't e able to afford in a million years just to annoy the sales assistant who was forced to serve with a smile. Before long, we were tired out - mainly from laughing at the sales lady from S_irène_, one of the boutiques, who told Percy that that the neon-pink, furry hat he was wearing went great with his eyes and she would give him a student discount so the hideous thing would come down to only $150 - and stopped to catch our breath.

"I'll go get some drinks." Percy said, leaving me sitting on the low wall around the promenade, staring at the sea and waiting for a glass of lemonade.

The area around where I was sat was quiet. There was an obese man eating a from a jumbo pack of cheesy chips a few feet away from me to my right, and to my left, a metre or so away, were group of punk girls. There was three of them, all dressed in dark colours, drinking from a bottle of red juice. The tallest had cropped, ketchup-red hair with black streaks running through the tangled mess and she wore an XXXL Metallica T-shirt which reached her knees but she wore no pants with it. She took a long swig of juice and I saw the liquid slosh around in the bottle; it was too thick to be juice, I realised, and thought it was probably wine they were trying to pass of as something non-alcoholic. She passed the bottle on to a girl with long, straight, greasy, purple hair who, in the heat, wore a long overcoat which concealed everything except the bottoms of her heavy looking boots. I expected Purple Head to pass the drink on to the third girl, a short girl in a revealing tank top and fishnet tight with a shaved head except for a black fringe, but she passed the bottle back to Ketchup Hair. Fishnets whirled around and caught my eye; she must have noticed me staring. I looked away, embarrassed, just in time to see Percy coming back with the drinks.

"They were out of lemonade so I got Coke." he told me and sat down on the wall.

"That's okay, thanks." I said. I popped open the cold can and took thirsty sip.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the obese man get up and leave, tossing the chip packet onto the gravel. For some reason this made me uneasy. As a shadow fell over me, I looked up to see the three girls towering above us; all of a sudden, I felt intimidated but the cool of my dagger blade in my pocket reassured me, even though I knew it would not hurt the mortal girls.

"Can I help you?" Percy asked and I noticed an uneasy edge to his voice.

"Yes, you can actually." Ketchup Hair replied with a smile which was dangerously beautiful.

"It's nice to know that there are some polite men around these days." Purple Head said.

A slow breeze picked up and I caught their scent: strong perfume…and horses? It made no sense to me, but suddenly Percy stood up, pulling Riptide from his pocket and uncapping it.

"Put that away, Son of Poseidon." ordered Fishnets and I recognised her voice from somewhere.

At once, I drew my dagger, if these girls knew about us being half-bloods and could see our weapons, they were definitely not mortal and my dagger would positively hurt them. The sight of our drawn weapons made the three monsters hiss and they backed away a few steps.

"No need to fight," Purple Head snarled, "We could do this the easy way and kill you quickly."

All of a sudden, the three girls morphed into their monstrous real selves. The were like nothing I'd seen before, women from the top but with mismatched legs – one bronze leg, another was like a donkeys. I recognised them from lessons at Camp: _empousa._

"Who are you and what do you want?" I managed to say.

Fishnets stepped forwards, "Oh, so rude of us not to introduce ourselves. My friend in the T-shirt is Astrid and my purple headed pal is Quinn. But don't you recognise me, Annabeth?"

The girl's monster body began to morph into something else, more human. Then there was the final result: bleached blonde hair and a skimpy white dress.

"Shelley!" I said, my voice shaking with hurt and anger.

"Didn't you wonder how we knew exactly where two of the most powerful half-bloods left after the war would be?" Quinn sneered.

"Enough!" Astrid ordered. "They have had their drinks and it is time for u to have ours."

As quick as lightning, Shelley snatched my half-empty Coke can from my hand and tossed it behind me and whipped around to stand on top the wall. She was dangerously too high above us and too close so both Percy and I took a step forward – it was huge mistake because now the _empousai _had us circled.

Astrid made a lunge for Percy but with a mixture of surprise and self-defense, he swung his sword and hit the monster on the head, the blade leaving a gash on her head before she disappeared in a flash; the only evidence she had ever been there was a small pile of ash on the gravel.

"You shouldn't have done that!" screamed Shelley and I saw her eyes flash with hatred and anger for her lost sister.

"Leave Annabeth alone – it's me you want!" Percy yelled. "In case you idiots haven't noticed, she's a girl."

"This is the twenty-first century," Quinn retorted in an offended tone, "Nobody is afraid to hide their homosexuality and neither am I."

_ Great, that's all I need – a homosexual monster who wants to kill me for my blood_ I thought. Quinn's disturbing smile loomed closer and closer to my face. I tried to move my arm to stab her and see her reduced to pile of ash like Astrid. But all I could think of was how Shelley had manipulated me and pretended to be my friend when she's been a monster all this time. All I could do was curse myself for not being able to tell straight away.

But all of that gave me a new anger and energy. "Take that, freak!" I yelled, swinging my dagger. I stabbed the centre of the _empousa_'s stomach and for a brief second, her face was twisted with pain and then she evaporated.

I turned around to face Shelley who was being wrestled by Percy. She cleverly avoided his grip and his blade and managed to get away from him.

"Guys, no, don't do that to me." she begged.

"Too late, Shelley," I panted, "You hurt me now it's time for me to hurt you."

"Go for it Annabeth." Percy encouraged.

So I raised my dagger and, before you could even say _to Hades with you, _Shelley was gone in a puff of smoke, destined to remain in the underworld. I turned to Percy, beaming.

"You know, I'm kind of glad that we got attacked." he said, taking me in his arms.

"Yeah," I smiled into his shoulder, "It wouldn't have been summer without a good monster attack."

"Speaking of monster attacks," Percy groaned, "Time for some of my mom's family bonding…"


	6. Family Bonding

**Family Bonding**

The walk back to the cabin seemed to take forever. I was so tired, I couldn't feel my feet anymore. I was not looking forward to family bonding either. When I was younger, I never got on with my dad and my stepmom would rather lick the inside of a city bus than spend more than five minutes wit me when she doesn't yell, scream or insult. Now, even though I get on with her better, things get awkward after about ten minutes and I have make an excuse to leave.

I had no idea what sort of family bonding Ms Jackson had in mind. I hoped it was eating fried chicken around the TV and watching a soppy movie about a sinking ship or something; but every time I thought about the two words, all I could imagine was a bunch of hippy people with long, straggly hair holding hands round a camp fire and 'believing in the spirit of Mother Earth'.

When we got back, we found Ms Jackson bent over a sizzling pan of frying chicken. Mr Blofis was setting the table and I helped…after washing my hands with antibacterial handwash as instructed by Percy's mother.

"Did you have a good day?" Mr Blofis asked.

"Not really." Percy replied, plonking down onto a chair and then yelping as his butt hit the hard wood of the seat.

"What happened?!" Ms Jackson practically yelled and whirled around. She looked really scary with her concerned eyes and the knife she used to cut the chicken in her hand. Ms Jackson's biggest fear is that one day Percy and I will have a fight and break up.

"Nothing bad, Ms Jackson." I reassured her; the knife was really freaking me out and the worst thing was that if she stabbed me, I would die but if I retaliated, my celestial bronze would leave her still standing. Not that I'd ever stab Ms Jackson.

"Yeah, nothing bad except we nearly got killed by monster punk girls." Percy said sarcastically.

"That's okay then." Ms Jackson said and turned back to her chicken.

Ω

"…and then," Ms Jackson said laughing while Percy stuffed his face with chicken as if there was no tomorrow, "I told him to stop eating the paste because it didn't taste good and so he picks up his crayon and sticks it in his mouth and says 'But this don't taste good either, Mommy!' Can you believe that?!" Ms Jackson continued to laugh like a maniac and Mr Blofis laughed because she was his wife and I laughed not so much because the story was funny, but because red and overstuffed Percy's face was hilarious.

I thought _if this is family bonding, I can totally deal with it. _I spoke too soon.

"Okay, board game time!"

Why? Why is that at every gathering with more than, like, two people does the host think that board games will make everything more entertaining? Usually it just makes the winner brag; the loser get mad and the ones in the middle have to deal with the others' annoying behaviour.

We sat down on the floor - well, carpet - of the living room and played Monopoly (which Mr Blofis won), and then Chess (which Mr Blofis won) and then ended up playing Chinese whispers (which was a lost game because Percy would mess up whatever was going round deliberately but this also made the game more fun; I said 'I like singing in the rain' as my movie inspired quote which he changed to 'I sing in the rain in my underwear' He wishes.).

Finally, the whole bonding thing was over. It wasn't too bad – putting a title on it made everything seem creepy and something people from a 50's movie would do. I was glad that there was no fighting, except for who got which piece in Monopoly; there was no throwing things, except for when the chess piece 'magically' flew out of Percy's hand and nearly killed the cabin's goldfish (it was hilarious watching him apologise to a fish) and everyone was still speaking to each other. I fully understood that 'family bonding' is just another word for spending time with your family…being me, I find even that idea scary.

Ω

I sitting on the porch swing, not really thinking about anything in particular when Percy came out and sat down next to me.

"So what did you think of family bonding?" he asked half grinning and half blushing.

"It was different to what I expected." I admitted.

"What did you expect? Holding hands and singing around a bonfire?"

"Yes."

Percy laughed. "Don't you ever even try to spend time with your family?"

"No." I sighed, "I don't see the point; Dad always talks about aeroplanes, my stepmom hardly talks and the twins just yell about Spiderman and Ben 10."

"That must suck."

I shrugged. "You get used to it."

Percy looked at me for a long time and I had to turn away. I didn't know what he was thinking. I couldn't bear the idea that he was sorry for me.

"You know Annabeth; you're always going to have a family whenever you're with me." he said quietly and put an arm around my shoulders.

I leant my head on his shoulder and looked up, smiling. "What exactly are you implying, Seaweed Brain?"

I laughed as he blushed and ducked his head to kiss me. I smiled, feeling his lips on mine, knowing he hadn't lied.

I know exactly who my family is.


End file.
